Kath has been featuring Registered Dietitians on her site lately and yesterday’s RD gave an in-depth look into focusing on nutrient-dense foods as a lifestyle, rather than counting calories and dieting.

Her post basically sums up how I eat on a daily basis. While I still want to put together a post for you on fueling ideas for your workouts, understanding nutrient-dense eating is a great place to start.

Speaking of eating, I showed you my brownie sundae from Wednesday night but left out my favorite salad.

In case you forgot what it looked like.

This salad from The Cheesecake Factory (Barbeque Ranch Chicken Salad) is actually a terrific example of nutrient-dense eating. Black beans, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, romaine lettuce and avocado. I leave off the chicken when I order since I am a vegetarian but the grilled chicken they would include is lean protein and fine.

Some may say the onion strings are a no-no but in my world, they make the salad. They are what I love and giving up what you love is a recipe for diet disaster. Leave off the dressing instead, order a light version on the side and dip your fork.

The ingredients in the salad, especially with the few onion strings on top give this nutrient dense meal enough flavor that you don’t need the dressing as much as you think.

Food has flavor, remember that.

And, since it is nutrient-dense, go ahead and eat the whole thing.

I always do.

Wait! I forgot! The Cheesecake Factory has rolled out some new menu items!

It was a bit hard for me to zoom in and cover the whole menu but we are talking a Kale and Quinoa Salad, Marinated Steak Salad (which sounds delish if only I ate steak), Grilled Steak Medallions, a few other things and wait for it…

….Loaded Baked Potato Tots. Probably not the image of nutrient-dense eating but hey, everything in moderation.

Can you believe tomorrow is March 1st? My unofficial first day of Spring! Granted, we have some gigantic snow storm on the horizon for Monday but I am not up to that. One day at a time please.

I don’t know about you but I would like some new clothes in honor of the upcoming season. I haven’t found anything yet but I did find this new hair clip at Henri Bendel yesterday that I had to have:

It’s called the Broadway Bow Claw; it comes in different sizes/colors and definitely holds the hair in place.

Since today is the last day of February, I decided to look back at my posts from the month and share a few of my favorites just in case you missed them:

Comments

You are SO right. If you take away everything you love about a dish, then what’s the point?! There are usually a few not-so-healthy ingredients in my salad, but they’re balanced out with really good ones!

Not only is nutrient dense food tasty – it fills you up, too! I am more hungry when I’m eating crappier food and less hungry when I’m eating REAL food! 🙂 That clip is super cute – I need cuter hair accessories! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Can we still be friends if I admit that I don’t think I’ve ever been to The Cheesecake Factory? Of course we can. It just means that you’ll take me there when I visit someday 🙂

And I couldn’t agree more about nutrient dense eating. I mean… if you need a perfect example of what not to do, just look at what’s going on in the world. The stores are PACKED full of low-fat this, diet that, yet people are struggling with weight more than ever. Why? Because they’re not eating food…

Hi! I’m Meredith!

Welcome to my blog! I'm an avid runner/self-proclaimed Pure Barre addict living in New York with a love for good food and fashion. Please join me as I run through divorced motherhood sharing my foodie moments, fashion favorites, race recaps and everything in between!

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*Although I have completed the Professional Certificate Program in Sports Nutrition and Performance through the School of Professional Development at Stonybrook University, I am not a registered Dietitian or Nutritionist. The health advice, opinion and information I provide in this blog is based upon my knowledge, beliefs, experiences and what works for my family and me.

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